RDF Hangover

It's always that way - you indulge a little too much, and the next day the harsh light of reality smacks you in the retinas.

iPhone downers:

1) It will not be open to developers at first. It will be closed like the iPod, not open. Major bummer.
2) No WiFi or cell syncing to desktop. Requires physical dock. Bummer.

On the up side, a 3G CDMA version *is* in the works. Wonder how that's going to fly with Cingular's exclusivity? Maybe they get the GSM version exclusive only? Or maybe both will be sold overseas, but only GSM/Cingular in the US? Hmm.

As an aside, a lot has been bandied about concerning Jobs' use of the term "OS X" for the OS for this wee beastie. Now, the thing is... the official name for the OS running on Macintoshes is MacOS X. Not OS X. Yet if you look at all of the info out of the mothership in Cupertino, it all says "OS X". No Mac.

My guess: We know the core of MacOS X is actually pretty lightweight and small. They are, indeed, leveraging this, with the various technologies they have in place over the top, to create the OS for the iPhone. However. I think this is the first sign that MacOS X is, as of RSN, "OS X for Macintoshes" the same way that the OS on the iPhone is "OS X for iPhone". Same shared base, ported to different hardware, with different sets of drivers, subsets of API frameworks, etc. If so, this is damned exciting, and completely justifies Apple's dropping of 'Computer' from their name. This would mean that, in theory, they could nimbly move to hardware at will, and slice and dice their technology sets to match, hitting consumer electronics markets on their own schedule. Hell, *making* markets. I can't wait to find out what's running the Apple TV. My hunch is that it is another cut of OS X. (I could, of course, be completely wrong, and it could be the iPod OS beefed up, but I kinda doubt it.)

This was rather a big chunk of the dream of Linux - embedded through server, one unified set of APIs, technologies, etc, to choose from. But this time... with *style*.

Oh, and lots of money. :)

RDF Hangover

It's always that way - you indulge a little too much, and the next day the harsh light of reality smacks you in the retinas.

iPhone downers:

1) It will not be open to developers at first. It will be closed like the iPod, not open. Major bummer.
2) No WiFi or cell syncing to desktop. Requires physical dock. Bummer.

On the up side, a 3G CDMA version *is* in the works. Wonder how that's going to fly with Cingular's exclusivity? Maybe they get the GSM version exclusive only? Or maybe both will be sold overseas, but only GSM/Cingular in the US? Hmm.

As an aside, a lot has been bandied about concerning Jobs' use of the term "OS X" for the OS for this wee beastie. Now, the thing is... the official name for the OS running on Macintoshes is MacOS X. Not OS X. Yet if you look at all of the info out of the mothership in Cupertino, it all says "OS X". No Mac.

My guess: We know the core of MacOS X is actually pretty lightweight and small. They are, indeed, leveraging this, with the various technologies they have in place over the top, to create the OS for the iPhone. However. I think this is the first sign that MacOS X is, as of RSN, "OS X for Macintoshes" the same way that the OS on the iPhone is "OS X for iPhone". Same shared base, ported to different hardware, with different sets of drivers, subsets of API frameworks, etc. If so, this is damned exciting, and completely justifies Apple's dropping of 'Computer' from their name. This would mean that, in theory, they could nimbly move to hardware at will, and slice and dice their technology sets to match, hitting consumer electronics markets on their own schedule. Hell, *making* markets. I can't wait to find out what's running the Apple TV. My hunch is that it is another cut of OS X. (I could, of course, be completely wrong, and it could be the iPod OS beefed up, but I kinda doubt it.)

This was rather a big chunk of the dream of Linux - embedded through server, one unified set of APIs, technologies, etc, to choose from. But this time... with *style*.

Oh, and lots of money. :)